Sub-bottom profiler, Parametric

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Customer benefits

The TOPAS parametric sub-bottom profiler family are based on low frequency sound generation due to non-linear interaction in the water column from two high intensity sound beams at higher frequencies.
The resulting signal has a high relative bandwidth (~80%), narrow beam profile (close to the transmitted high frequency signals) and no side lobes. All these features results in very high spatial resolution
in the sediment profiles. The narrow beam also results in lower received reverberation levels and thus higher penetration.

Profiler options

The PS 18 system can, as an option, use the low frequency channels of the EM 122 multibeam echo sounder receiver array, as input. In this case an additional multi channel receiver unit including beamformer
is installed. The narrow receiver beam for the EM 122 system improves signal-to-noise ratio and increases performance of the TOPAS system.

All TOPAS systems can receive slope information from KONGSBERG multibeam echo sounders to steer the beam perpendicular to the seabed for better performance. External depth information can also be received for improved operational reliability.

Reduced transducer size

By generating low frequency signals in this way, the transducer size is reduced by a factor from 15 to 300, depending on frequencies) relative to conventional sub-bottom profiler generating the same
beam width. This advantage makes it possible to install low frequency, narrow beam systems on small vessels.

Three parametric sub-bottom profiler systems are available

The TOPAS family currently include the PS 18, PS 40 and PS 120 stand-alone parametric sub-bottom profilers:

TOPAS PS 18 sub-bottom profiler: Designed for use in water depths from 10 meters to full ocean depth operation.

TOPAS PS 120 sub-bottom profiler: Portable system designed for very high resolution, shallow depth – between 3 and 400 meter operation.

Simple system integration

All TOPAS systems can be integrated with standard navigation systems, vertical reference systems (EM 3000-format output, etc.), synchronizing unit (Ksync) etc. The systems can also distribute the received
data blocks on the Ethernet so operators using a slave PC connected to the network, can look at, process and store data locally in real-time. However, he is not allowed to modify critical operational
system settings.